Adding Vision & Value to Life

If you rated the past year of 2015 – on a scale of 1 (being the worst year ever) to 10 (it was awesome) – what kind of a rating would you give it? We did this exercise in church a couple weeks ago! While I heard of some whose year had been ranked pretty low on the scale, and a few who gave the previous 12 months high marks, the average was probably about 6.5! Definitely room for improvement. Is it possible to have a year that gets a 10? Now let’s be honest, some of you could win the Billion dollar Powerball Lotto and you still wouldn’t rate the year a 10 because it’s just not in your nature to give too much credit to anything! And hey, money doesn’t make you happy! (At least that’s what everyone without a lot of money says!) (Also, breaking news……I did buy a Powerball Lottery ticket! Maybe we will cover this in another blog – but wanted you to know, only bought (1) $2 ticket – did not wait in any line and my criteria is it has to be over 1 Billion dollars to make it worth my while! Ok – back to the regularly scheduled blog) But what if we just went on the premise that we’d like to improve on the rating we gave this past year. We’d like to take 2016 up a notch or two! Are there some things that we can do to make that happen?

First of all, we have to BELIEVE that it can happen. I know this sounds so common and cliché! But Scripture reminds us in Proverbs 23:7 that “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he!” We BECOME what we BELIEVE! So it stands to reason, if we go into this new year already concluding that it will NOT be better than the last, there’s a pretty good chance it won’t be. However, if we start to believe that the next 52 weeks will be better in every way than what was, you mind begins to move you down the path to make it happen! Don’t we often say “I’ll believe it when I see it!”? Unfortunately, we have difficulty coming to grips with the fact that seeing isn’t believing, but believing is seeing.

Second thing we then need to do is change the BEHAVIOR to accommodate the BELIEF! This involves BREAKING and BECOMING! There were certain things you did last year, things you experienced, you were part of and they held you back from making your year better than it was. So, what are the things that held you back, and can you begin the process of Breaking Away from them so they don’t do that again this year. In the New Testament, Hebrews 12:1 tells us to lay aside the weight and get rid of the sin that keeps us from running our race unencumbered! Could be a habit you need to remove! A time waster you need to remove! Maybe even a relationship that you have that is toxic to you becoming all God wants you to be! Then on the positive side, what are the things that you need to BECOME so that what you BELIEVE will happen? Just like we develop negative traits that need to be removed, we have to develop positive traits to be improved! Then narrow those traits down – you have 12 months ahead, so what can you do on a Monthly basis, a Weekly basis, and a DAILY basis to BECOME the best you around. BELIEVE it, then BEHAVE like it by BREAKING AND BECOMING! Praying that this year ahead will be YOUR Best, and that you’ll be able to make 2016 a Live 10 Year!